NEW YORK: A/W 18-19 "PORTRAITS" WITH LI EDELKOORT

A good portrait opens the soul of the sitter to the world and professes faith in the power of picturing an unknown truth, a portrait is thus an artistic representation of a human, driven by the ideal to represent the personality and even catch the mood of the person, or cat or coat for that matter. This focus on the face and shoulders will create a stir in fashion where the portrait collar will take on new social media value, showing the essence of dress within one detail. The portrait often shows a person looking directly at the artist and the audience in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer, and therefore a good portrait is not measured in likeness but in liveliness, in how to portray the energy that a person possesses, how to depict serenity, melancholy or spleen, how to sculpt strength and energy, how to paint pain. Hidden moods and thought processes are laid bare by the simple gesture of a piece of charcoal, undiscovered qualities unveiled with the movement of a pen, inner strength revealed by the stroke of a brush. Tears are rendered in watercolours, skin is highlighted with sanguine crayons, features are finely and precisely etched for historical purposes. The shutter of a camera will hold a stare into eternity, making icons of our contemporaries. With the push of a button people freeze themselves with others in selfies, creating their own singular legends, to be communicated instantly. But portraits can also be written and recited, hidden in a song, chosen by a poem, revealed in a story. Narrated as a portrait of a lady, a portrait of a marriage or a portrait of the artist as a young man.

Li Edelkoort is arguably the world's most famous trend forecaster and colourist, working in industries from design and fashion to food, architecture, beauty, communication, automotive, and retail. Founded in 1986, her company Trend Union produces trend tools for strategists, designers and marketers at brands from Zara to Prada. She is also a publisher, humanitarian, educator and exhibition curator. In 2011, she launched an interactive online trend forum called TrendTablet.com. She has been named by TIME Magazine as one of the Most Influential People in Fashion and by Icon as one of the Most Influential People in Design. Edelkoort is the recipient of numerous accolades and since 2015 is the Dean of Hybrid Studies at Parsons in New York, where she is also starting a Textiles Masters course in 2017. Her much-talked about ANTI_FASHION Manifesto was the first to raise awareness about the shifts and upheavals currently experienced in the global fashion industry. Most recently, she founded the first ever New York Textile Month, taking place during the month of September in collaboration with The New School and Cooper Hewitt.